Martine L. Broekhuizen

Individual differences in effects of child care quality : The role of child affective self-regulation and gender

The current study investigated whether the relation between child care quality and childrens socio-emotional behavior depended on childrens affective self-regulation skills and gender. Participants were 545 children (Mage=27 months) from 60 center-based child care centers in the Netherlands. Multi-level analyses showed that children with low affective self-regulation skills or who were male demonstrated less teacher-rated social competence when exposed to relatively low quality child care. In addition, children with low affective self-regulation skills also showed more social competence in the case of relatively high quality child care, suggesting mechanisms of differential susceptibility. No main effects of child care quality or interactions were found for teacher- and parent-rated externalizing behavior. These findings emphasize the importance of considering childrens affective self-regulation skills and gender in understanding the effects of child care quality. High quality child care can be a means to strengthen childrens social development.

Teachers’ Emotional and Behavioral Support and Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation: Relations With Social and Emotional Skills During Play

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Drawing from a Dutch sample of 113 Dutch children (M age = 37 months, SD = 3.5) from 37 early care and education classrooms (19 child care centers and 18 preschools), this study examined whether the relation between classroom emotional and behavioral support and children’s observed social integration and positive mood in a play situation depends on children’s observed behavioral self-regulation. Multilevel analyses revealed a positive association between emotional and behavioral support and children’s social integration for children low on behavioral self-regulation, but there was no such association for children high on behavioral self-regulation. Contrary to our expectations, children low on behavioral self-regulation showed more integration in the case of relatively highly supportive classrooms but not less integration in classrooms that were low in support. For children’s positive mood, a positive association with emotional and behavioral support was found, and no association was found with behavioral self-regulation. Practice or Policy: This study’s findings highlight the importance of emotionally and behaviorally supportive classroom experiences for young children’s social and emotional skills. Moreover, results hint that experts should perhaps not see children low in behavioral self-regulation as always at risk for poorer social outcomes.

Methodological Issues in Research on the Sustainable Development of the Next Generation

Sophisticated analysis of large datasets from UN organizations, government registries, and large within- and between-country studies can provides practitioners and policy makers with information about what programs and practices are effective for whom. Use of research methods that address issues of internal and external validity in creating and evaluating programs and practices will play a critical role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals for all children. This chapter briefly describes various methodological approaches and their implications, using examples from the study of the impacts of child care and early education to illustrate how the methods can useful in addressing an important issue for sustainable development.